Path of Exile Curse of the Allflame: Getting Started in 3.29

Curse of the Allflame in Path of Exile 1 connects underwater excursions, collecting Charts and crafting with a choice of outcomes. You explore individual stretches of seabed, assemble them into a Voyage and decide where the potential reward justifies the danger. This overview covers expansion 3.29 and subsequent league changes, rather than Path of Exile 2.

The important distinction is between the challenge league and the wider game update. The sea expeditions belong to Curse of the Allflame, while changes to established systems affect a broader range of characters. An existing Standard character and a new league character therefore do not gain the same activities simply by installing the update.

Choose a purpose for your first session: starting the league, understanding the underwater loop or checking an older build after the changes. Before buying expensive components from an old shopping list, establish which content your character can access and which parts of its mechanics your build actually needs.

Starting the league and keeping an existing character

Curse of the Allflame launched on July 24, 2026, Pacific time. Participating in the challenge league itself requires a new character: select its banner during character creation. The league has a fresh economy, so your existing character's items do not become the new character's starting equipment. Purchased stash tabs remain available, but the contents of another league's stash do not transfer into the fresh economy.

You can continue playing existing characters in Standard. Before returning, check your passive tree, items and skill interactions. A mechanical rework can make a former combination awkward or ineffective even when every item involved is still in your stash.

The league banner determines the economy your character starts in; Standard remains a separate choice.

The underwater loop: an individual Chart and an assembled Voyage

Valerie and her ship, The Sovereign, connect the league activities. Charts provide access to seabed areas. Below the surface, Allflame Lanterns protect you from the surrounding environment; when their light begins to fade, returning to the Bathysphere matters more than opening another chest.

Use your first excursion to learn the return route. Remember where you entered, where safety lies and how many decisions the journey back involves. Learning the route only after the dangerous phase begins spends precious time on navigation instead of escape.

Charted areas can be assembled into a Voyage. The rewards themselves are only part of the decision: revealed area modifiers, their combinations and the effects around the planner's borders also matter. Read the complete configuration before starting. An attractive reward area is of little use if your character cannot handle the dangers along the route.

Plan the connections and combined effects before judging the potential rewards.

A practical preparation sequence:

• Decide why you are taking this expedition: learning the system, obtaining needed materials or pursuing a particular reward category.

• Read the dangerous area properties and compare them with your character's defenses and recovery.

• Memorize the return route before chests and combat distract you.

• Send valuable loot to the surface through available Allflame Capsules and check that the transfer is confirmed.

• Afterwards, evaluate delivered loot and resources spent, rather than everything you happened to see underwater.

Patch 3.29.2 added a convenient option to claim all transferred loot. Capsule capacity is shared in a party. Agree on what to send first: one participant's rare item may use space another participant expected to have.

Crafting: a clear target beats an expensive experiment

The ship houses Allflame Crafting, where an item splits into several ghostly outcomes and you keep one. Ducats provide additional ways to alter equipment. This system rewards knowing your target beforehand, rather than pressing the button and only then asking which result looks most valuable.

Make a short list of mandatory properties for the finished item. Separately record what you cannot afford to lose: a required attribute, resistance or characteristic on which the rest of your equipment depends. Compare the outcomes against that list. A weapon with impressive headline damage is not an upgrade if equipping it prevents your character from using a required skill.

Check currency compatibility in the interface. The available operations changed: patch 3.29.1 enabled Allflame Crafting with Ancient Orbs and Orbs of Chance, while clarifying the tooltip for most quality- and socket-changing currencies. Do not extend the rule for one operation to every other operation or mistake a choice of outcomes for a guaranteed desired modifier.

Mercenaries and the new Ascendancy

The Mercenaries of Trarthus returned to the core game. An encounter involves a duel and a chosen reward; in Maps, a Warrant lets you defer an encounter with a specific Mercenary, retaining their skills but generating different equipment for the later summons. That is useful when the skill combination interests you but the current reward does not.

The Luminary is a new Scion Ascendancy that supports permanent Mercenaries and changing their equipment. Start by deciding what role a companion needs to fill: damage, assistance in combat or a particular interaction with your build. Then choose equipment that serves that role.

Unique items have an important distinction. A temporarily hired Mercenary can use Unique items already equipped. A permanent Mercenary needs the relevant Luminary passives to do so. Do not judge whether a companion is ready solely from the equipment you saw before hiring them.

Changes outside the sea league

Abyss encounters now revolve around already-open cracks and nearby enemies. Legion gained a new reward cycle involving Enshrouding Crystals and transforming Unique armour in the Domain of Timeless Conflict. The Atlas gained one-use Anomalies associated with completing Maps affected by Voidstones.

Socket colour no longer prevents you from inserting a differently coloured gem. Matching colours can still provide a useful bonus, turning colour from a mandatory compatibility condition into a separate upgrade target. This does not remove the gem's other requirements or the function of socket links.

The update also changed spells, items and Ascendancies. When returning to an older build, first assemble a working configuration, then test damage and survivability in a familiar area. Comparing it with an older video without accounting for its patch is a poor way to identify what needs fixing.

Later changes that affect your first plan

The reveal overview does not describe every subsequent version of the league. Patch 3.29.3 introduced Cursed Ducats for empowering Charts and Voyages, with up to three socketed at once. Each adds a particular downside alongside increased monster toughness and rewards. Start with one suitable restriction and increase difficulty after successful excursions, instead of filling every slot immediately.

Your first Cursed Ducat is associated with defeating Velka. Players who already defeated her can speak to Valerie aboard the ship to collect it. The same update added a way to view all twelve planner Border Modifiers simultaneously: Alt on a keyboard or Left Trigger on a controller.

A useful first-session plan is straightforward: confirm your character's league, learn one underwater excursion, deliver your loot, understand the planner and only then invest in empowerment and expensive crafting. Each purchase can then address a problem you have actually encountered, instead of getting ahead of your understanding of the mechanic.